The Griffith-Eskridge household is pleased to announce a fantastic new wine discovery: Conti Sertoli Salis Sassella.

I’d never heard of Sassella before, but it’s a Nebbiolo–the same grape as some of our other favourites (Barbaresco, Barolo, Gattinara). Deliriously good. The one we drank was eight years old, and it was practically perfect. A fantastic colour, that garnet-turning-to-brick at the edges, clear as glass, scented like figs and prunes and sunlit rocky ground.

If you think of Barolo as a haughty but urbane Diego De La Vega (Anthony Hopkins) teaching Zorro how to use a sword (and knife and fork) and Sassella as the flashing-eyed Elena (Catherine Zeta Jones) in demure mode but brimming with devilry, you’ll get a sense of its taste: wicked, luscious, deceptively light and most dangerous to play with. Also, y’know, irresistible. The kind of wine to give anyone a foolish grin.

And, okay, most of you who really like wine probably have been drinking it for years. So smile indulgently at my enthusiasm and get misty-eyed with nostalgia for a time when things this good were new to you, just DON’T SPOIL MY DELIGHT.